Historically, providers of products and services have provided those products or services in response to receipt of consideration from a consumer or client of those products or services. This relationship between the consumer and the provider took, whether explicit or implicit, the form of a contract where the provider received consideration in the form of a payment and the consumer received the products or services. In some instances performance by either party might not occur exactly at the time of contract formation. As one example, a consumer could enter into a brokerage (or listing) agreement having a promise to pay a real estate broker for its brokerage services at the closing of the sale of the subject real estate. In such a case, the contract is formed, but payment to the broker is delayed until after the broker completes performance of his or her services. In other cases, the provider performs and the consumer pays over time. For example, in a lending transaction a mortgage broker provides a loan upfront and the borrower (i.e., consumer) pays it back with interest over time. In this case completion of payment to lender may take 30 years—so completion of the consumer's obligations is accomplished long after contract formation or the related real estate transaction. These types of transactions are well known—and many examples exist.
There are other types of transactions where a consumer can purchase an option or a right of first refusal for goods or services. For example, a consumer can purchase a right of first refusal for the option to buy a product if and when it becomes available. Thus, the consumer can purchase a right to obtain a product in the future. As another example, in sports many professional athletes' contracts have options for additional years that are typically exercisable at the teams' options. In this case the team is the consumer of services and the athlete is the service provider.
In contrast, to date, situations where a provider of goods or services procures a right or option to be the future provider of goods or services is not generally done or to be a future bidder for such goods or services. There are situations where providers offer coupons that are redeemable in the future for goods or services offered by that provider, but in those cases the provider does not obtain a right to provide the future services or to bid on the opportunity to do so. The coupons are an attempt to entice the consumer to choose the provider, with no obligation on the part of the consumer to do so.